Indefensible (DI Sara Ramsey Book 12), M Comley [world of reading TXT] 📗

Sara noted the glare Carla issued Gary, as if warning him not to lay a hand on her ever again.

Just play along with it for now, Carla, please.

Sara kept one eye on the road behind the kidnapper, aware the cavalry was on its way. The kidnapper bundled Carla and Gary in the back of the car and then dived in the front seat. Sara watched on, fearing they were about to lose them within seconds.

The car rocked from side to side and the gun went off. The rocking stopped. “Carla, Carla!” Sara screeched. “Shit, what’s going on? Please let her be safe,” Sara then whispered, her feet frozen to the spot.

“I don’t know,” Des replied. “No one moves, not yet.”

Sara started to run towards the van but Des was quick to yank her back as the ART vehicle pulled up. Four men with guns exited the vehicle. The commander demanded to know what was going on. Des gave them a brief outline of what had occurred. The men surrounded the vehicle and ordered those inside to come out with their hands raised.

Gary and Carla climbed out of the back. Carla had tears rolling down her cheeks. She slumped to the ground. Sara immediately took a step forward to assist her, but Des held her back. Two armed police opened both front doors and peered in. The one on the driver’s side gave the thumbs-up that the danger was over.

The commander gave the order for Sara and Des to assist Gary and Carla. Sara raced forward and smothered Carla with kisses, avoiding the open wound to the side of her face. “Oh God, thank Christ you’re all right. What happened?”

“The idiot put us in the back, forgetting I had a rope to hand. I wrapped the rope around his neck while Gary tried to get the gun off him and it went off. The bastard shot himself. Gary saved us.” Carla reached out and she and Gary held hands and shared a kiss. Sara was gobsmacked, and she had to force down the acid burning her throat at the obvious show of affection.

Don’t do this, Carla, don’t get involved with him again. He’s to blame. Shit! How can I tell her? What a frigging nightmare. I’m going to be damned if I do and damned if I don’t!

Epilogue

After Carla had her ankle assessed by the police surgeon, DCI Price had insisted that both Carla and Sara take a few days off to recover from the ordeal. Sara was grateful to have some downtime to catch up on some much-needed sleep and cuddles with both Mark and Misty.

She rang Carla a couple of times to see how she was coping and even visited her once to make sure her ankle was healing well, but Sara hadn’t stayed around long because Gary refused to leave the room to give them some space for a girlie chat. Carla had assured Sara that she was okay and that she and Gary had patched things up and were back together. The last time Sara had contacted Carla she was shocked to hear that Gary had insisted they move back in together, so that’s how her partner was spending her recovery time, moving her gear from her rented flat into Gary’s house.

The second she heard the news, Sara’s heart sank. The opportunity had passed to tell Carla that all this had been Gary’s fault.

On the second day, Sara received a call from the station. “Hello, boss, sorry to interrupt your time off, I just wanted to bring you up to date on a few things.”

“That’s okay, Christine. I was going to get in touch with you later, anyway. How’s it going? Any news on who the kidnapper was?”

“Yes, he’s a notorious loan shark in the area. Paul ‘Pitbull’ Rogers.”

“Oh, great. If you were introduced to a man by that name, would you bloody do business with him?”

“Nope. I’d run a mile. On the other hand, I suppose it depends how deep you are into debt and how desperate you are at the time.”

“Yeah, there is that. You know Carla’s back with Gary, don’t you?”

“I’d heard. Does she know that Gary’s involvement with the deceased is the reason she was attacked?”

“No. I don’t have it in me to tell her, not yet. I know I should have, but… the opportunity has passed us by now. Can you tell the rest of the team to keep schtum about it? I know it’s not an ideal situation, but until I can come up with a solution, my hands are tied.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pre-warn the rest of the team. Gary will show his true colours again soon, once the romance has died down again and the reality hits home. He must be up to his neck in debt. I’m sure that will put an extra burden on their relationship.”

“You could be right. We all need to be there to offer Carla our support when the inevitable happens. Going back to the cases we were dealing with, have the families been informed the suspect has been apprehended?”

“They have, I made the calls myself. They were all relieved and asked me to pass on their thanks and best wishes.”

“That’s what makes our job worthwhile at the end of the day.”

“It does indeed. I’ll go now. See you tomorrow.”

“Thanks for the update. Take care, Christine.”

Sara ended the call and hugged Misty, who inched herself out of her arms a few minutes later. “I’d better get to the shops. We have Mum and Dad coming to lunch on Sunday and nothing in the fridge or freezer.”

She trailed around the supermarket in a daze, picking up a large joint of beef and a packet of Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire puddings as she passed the frozen food section.

On the drive home, with her boot full of food, she reflected on how lucky she was not to have any angst or concerns in her life, none that matched the